Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

Please join us as we read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr.
There are two more books that continue the story: Bombs on Aunt Dainty and A Small Person Far Away.
I've read all three and enjoyed them all!

I will be joining you for this, thanks for arranging it.

I'll be joining in as well. Will take a week or so to begin. Need to finish the current reads.

Great! I hope to reread it as well.

I hope to pick up the book from my library today. I will read the others in the series if I like this first book

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

(view spoiler)[For me, one of the most important things to realise if one wishes to read Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is that her semi-autobiographical children's novel is in my humble opinion NOT an account of the Holocaust but rather a story of how when and immediately after the National Socialists gain power in 1933 Germany, the first individuals to really feel the wrath and hatred of Adolf Hitler and his ilk are generally the Nazis' political opponents, Socialists, Communists, politically active authors, journalists, artists. Now while and yes indeed, in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Anna and her family are advised by allies and friends to immediately, to post haste flee Germany, the main threat hanging over the family in 1933 is still to and for me that Anna's father is and continues to be very much politically and economically left-wing and represents therefore an active, well-known and vociferous opponent of the Nationals Socialists (and albeit that the family's secular Jewish background of course also makes them personae non gratae and especially the father as someone to be arrested, in my opinion, most of the danger in 1933, right after the Nazis have taken over the government of Germany, really does for the most part still emanate from the fact and truth of the matter that any and all governmental criticism is from henceforth on seen and regarded as treason, and that yes, the more radical left-wing philosophers, economists and political writers of whom Anna's father is one, are definitely all and sundry being en masse targeted, being spied on and often arrested, with the original concentrations camps actually having been constructed for so-called enemies of the state, for basically ANYONE being critical of the new regime and therefore deemed as traitors, and in particular members of the Social Democrats, the SPD, and declared Communists). And with this fact in mind, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit also often does portray instances where persons are being actively encouraged to leave but refuse, where individuals think and naively believe that the National Socialists would not consider politically neutral or mildly left of centre them as possible enemies of the state (such as Anna's Uncle Julius, who is repeatedly warned by Anna's father that the situation in Germany is becoming more and more dire, that he really should consider leaving Germany because his grandmother was Jewish and that he also identifies as a Social Democrat but who refuses to listen with ultimately tragic results, which is indeed something that actually often and sadly did occur with more than a few left wing, critical of the National Socialists political activists, artists and authors, unfortunate persons who often had multiple early opportunities to escape from, to leave Germany during the early years of the Third Reich, who were actually sometimes even erroneously and naively of the belief that the Nazis would somehow calm down and and would become more reasonable and increasingly democratic and who tragically ended up stuck in Germany and destined for prison and the concentrations camps).

But of course, aside from being a novel of the early days of the Third Reich, and portraying Anna's family's escape from Germany and journey to first Switzerland, then France and ultimately England, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is also a novel of immigration and moving, relocation and especially once Anna's family has settled in France, how Anna adjusts to French culture and slowly but surely learns to master the French language (with for me personally, and mainly because it happened in a very similar manner to me when I was learning English after we had immigrated from Germany to Canada in 1976, one of the most evocative and joyful moments of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit being when Anna realises that she has indeed become proficient and increasingly fluent in the French language because she now does no longer first have to translate a French question into German before being able to answer it in French, that she is now naturally speaking French and no longer needing her German as a language crutch). And therefore, I do not only recommend When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit as a story of the early days of the Third Reich (and how Anna and her family flee National Socialism and likely arrest and torture especially for the father had they remained in Germany), since Judith Kerr also very meticulously and with much detail shows and demonstrates how especially Anna deals with and handles culture shock, how once in France, she learns French fluently and finally realises that yes, she is becoming totally familiar with France and with the French language, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is also a perfect novel to share with young immigrants or emigrants, to show them the stages of acclimatisation and assimilation that Anna must pass through before she feels at home and at ease in France (before of course, things change once again, before Anna's father is offered a job in England and they finally at the end of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit all relocate to the United Kingdom, another stressful move and change, but of course with hindsight, this being a total blessing, as we all know that France was eventually invaded and occupied by the Nazis and that those refugees who had found shelter in France were of course suddenly very much in harm's way). (hide spoiler)]

With what is happening in the world right now I think this book will be very appropriate.

Tracey wrote: "With what is happening in the world right now I think this book will be very appropriate."

So will the sequels, even though I did not really enjoy the third novel.

Manybooks, would you be so kind as to post a spoiler warning before your in-depth comment, which will be helpful after reading-just in case someone is reading the books for the first time.
Thanks!

Rosemarie wrote: "Manybooks, would you be so kind as to post a spoiler warning before your in-depth comment, which will be helpful after reading-just in case someone is reading the books for the first time.
Thanks!"

Sorry, I thought I had but had forgotten to add the second part of the tab.

Thanks! I appreciate it.

I could only get an audio book at the moment but hope for a hard copy to come this week. Familiar with the author but have not read this one. Looking forward to it.

Great to have you join us, Penny!

The Other Way Round

(view spoiler)[Now truth be told, albeit that I have not quite enjoyed Judith Kerr's The Other Way Round quite as much as the first novel, as When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, I still have found The Other Way Round (which is also available under the alternative title of Bombs on Aunt Dainty) a both heartwarming and heartbreaking, as well as generally delightfully and refreshingly truthful seeming and feeling depiction and description of how Anna, Max and their parents (who actually of course are meant to represent Judith Kerr and her family) experience WWII as Jewish German refugees in England, in the United Kingdom. However and even though I have indeed found The Other Way Round for the most part very much and sweetly delightfully realistic, unexaggerated and very much appreciatively honest, I still do kind of wish that Judith Kerr's narrative had been just a trifle more overtly critical of both the English government for arresting her older brother Max as a possible enemy alien (although I also on a realistic level do well understand the political reasons why this happened) and also yes, l personally do strongly believe that there should equally have been a quite bit more authorial criticism levelled at the father. For while I was reading The Other Way Round, it certainly has at times seemed to me as though in particular Anna is often (if not usually) considerably harder on her hardworking and often stressed out mother and basically does seem to think and believe that her father can somehow do no wrong, that he both needs and also totally deserves to be shielded, coddled and for the most part always forgiven (not to mention that I also do find it rather problematic that the lecherous art tutor who makes some pretty inappropriate moves on Anna is not raked over the proverbial coals a bit more severely in The Other Way Round, for even though Anna ends up with an art scholarship, Mr. Cotmore's behaviour towards her is in my opinion both totally inappropriate and should have faced considerably more textual condemnation within the pages of The Other Way Round). But yes, even with my personal criticisms, I still very much consider The Other Way Round a wonderful and engaging sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and personally cheer and laud the now unfortunately late Judith Kerr for having penned a WWII novel of such delightful honesty, candour and descriptiveness (a story where the horrors of WWII and Nazism are depicted in a realistic but still generally gentle enough manner, totally and completely suitable and appropriate for young readers from about the age of eleven or so onwards). (hide spoiler)]

A Small Person Far Away

(view spoiler)[With my sincere apologies to those readers who have indeed and actually enjoyed A Small Person Far Away, the third instalment of Judith Kerr's Out of the Hitler Time trilogy (and which like When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and The Other Way Round is once again quite heavily based on and influenced by Judith Kerr and her family's real-life experiences before, during and after WWII as refugees from the Nazis), I do have to admit that A Small Person Far Away has been if complete truth be told a very much painful, personally uncomfortable and as such also not really an either enjoyable or engaging reading experience for me, but rather a novel that basically, that for the most part seems entirely bent on only dealing with Kerr family horror stories (dysfunction, marital affairs, both achieved and attempted suicides and in particular with Anna, the thinly disguised author, and her often if not generally majorly fraught and unlovingly problematic relationship with her family, but in particular and especially with her mother, with Mama). And while I really, while I in fact and indeed did not expect to enjoy A Small Person Far Away in any manner as much as I had previously both loved and also academically appreciated When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and The Other Way Round (as trusted friends had already warned me that A Small Person Far Away was both very different from the first two novels and supposedly also much the weakest story of the Out of the Hitler Time trilogy), I also did not expect to so utterly despise A Small Person Far Away, I did not expect to so completely and lastingly be turned off by both Judith Kerr's writing style and yes also by ALL or at least by most of the presented main characters, as in particular, Anna, the mother, brother Max, the mother's fickle love interest Konrad, they yes indeed have all and sundry simply tended to annoy and frustrate me, and truly to such a massive and all encompassing extent that I am honestly and truthfully just so so glad to be finished once and for all with A Small Person Far Away and to never ever have to read it, to have to consider it again. For basically, the only part of A Small Person Far Away that has somewhat managed to hold and retain my interest have been Anna's flashbacks to her childhood, to when the family still lived in Berlin (prior to 1933, prior to Hitler and the Nazis taking over). And no, this has not really been even remotely enough for me to consider A Small Person Far Away with more than two stars, as there is just too much distancing writing and too much annoying and personally unrelatable (and often really not all that likeable characters) inhabiting the pages of this novel for me to consider a higher star ranking. And yes indeed, that is my final and personal opinion (and even though I do realise that A Small Person Far Away should probably be approached more and to large extent as Anna's, or rather as Judith Kerr's feelings and attitudes towards her family, and especially towards her mother, that still does not make me like or even appreciate A Small Person Far Away all that much, if really at all, as for all intents and purposes, A Small Person Far Away has simply and sadly been a total reading disappointment). (hide spoiler)]

I started reading. This sentence from chapter 1 caught my attention. ‘It’s another picture of that man,' (referring to Adolf Hitler) said Elsbeth. ‘My little sister saw one yesterday and thought it was Charlie Chaplin.’ I didn’t know what to make of it, whether to cry or laugh.

I've just finished a reread of the book, and enjoyed it just as much. The author was good at showing us the events through the eyes of a girl that age.
I loved it when Madame Fernand said that Anna's parents were two of the most impractical people she had ever met-and I do think that Mama was more practical than Papa when he brought home a questionable sewing machine.

Another book that deals with a family moving to Canada during those times is From Anna by Jean Little, which I also enjoyed.

Rosemarie wrote: "Another book that deals with a family moving to Canada during those times is From Anna by Jean Little, which I also enjoyed."

Yes, and also the sequel, Listen for the Singing.

Rosemarie wrote: "I've just finished a reread of the book, and enjoyed it just as much. The author was good at showing us the events through the eyes of a girl that age.
I loved it when Madame Fernand said that Anna..."

The German language biography on Alfred Kerr (Anna’s or rather Judith’s father) was quite disillusioning, as Alfred Kerr was also seemingly a huge academic snob and in the 1920s tried to very deliberately destroy Berthold Brecht’s career simply because Kerr did not agree with Brecht’s theatrical innovations, Alfred Kerr: Die Biographie. And reading that biography has definitely made me reevaluate Papa as he is depicted in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, for Papa might be depicted as impractical but never as nasty and arrogant.

I don't have much patience for academic snobbery. I wonder if Judith knew what her father was really like. Children don't always know all facets of their parents' characters.
Anna's father was pretty clueless about all the work her mother had to do, and how little money she had to work with.

Rosemarie wrote: "I don't have much patienc for academic snobbery. I wonder if Judith knew what her father was really like. Children don't always know all facets of their parents' characters.
Anna's father was prett..."

I do think that Judith Kerr kind of saw her father with the proverbial rose coloured eyeglasses and seems to have been much more critical of her mother. But both parents definitely seem to have been rather dysfunctional.

I felt so sorry for Onkel Julius-but there were so many in the same situation.

Rosemarie wrote: "I felt so sorry for Onkel Julius-but there were so many in the same situation."

Some like Onkel Julius did not get out early enough because they did not take the threat posed by the Nazis sufficiently seriously, some got out really late and could not handle exile, like Stefan Zweig, and some knew they had to get out but felt they could not leave because of in particular family obligations, like for instance Erich Kästner who was taking care of his frail mother (but also felt that he had an obligation to stay and to observe what was happening).

The ones who fled early were the lucky ones who saved their lives and those like Onkel Julius who wavered had to pay the price of their lives. I was so moved when Anne thought it was quite nice to be refugees as long as they all stayed together. Being displaced is not easy for anyone, young or old. We see that through Anne's story. But as long as they all are safe and together, that's all that matters.

Now I still think that in particular When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and The Other Way Round are great books for showcasing the Third Reich, but for me, after researching Alfred Kerr and his career as a drama and theatre critic, Kerr’s level of academic snobbery and how he was often very nasty towards authors, actors etc. with whom he did not agree, this certainly has rubbed me the wrong way and has also made me consider the following rather problematic truth, namely, that while Alfred Kerr himself was politically and philosophically very much against the Nazis, his attitudes and outbursts of anger and arrogance towards those authors etc. whom he did not support actually reminds me strongly of Donald Trump and also of in particular Hermann Goering (who also explosively hated anyone even remotely critical). And while I am glad this is not in the books, it does make me consider Papa as being a bit too artificially positively portrayed in the novels.

And I do not of course think that Alfred Kerr was a Nazi but that he certainly had aspects of narcissism, arrogance and a major sense of self importance in him (even though with regard to practicalities, Kerr was rather useless).

This is a beautiful children's classic. Sensitive and moving. I'm glad I joined the read.

Piyangie wrote: "This is a beautiful children's classic. Sensitive and moving. I'm glad I joined the read."

Are you planning on reading the sequels?

Manybooks wrote: "Piyangie wrote: "This is a beautiful children's classic. Sensitive and moving. I'm glad I joined the read."

Are you planning on reading the sequels?"

Not for the moment, but I've marked them for future reads.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Piyangie. I thought Anna and Max's feelings were realistically portrayed.
My family came to Canada when I was six and I know how important not wearing different clothes is to a child. In my case it was boots-cute little boots that everyone was wearing ten years later!

The time in Switzerland was a peaceful time for them, but when they went back the next year things had changed. As Anna said, you can't go back-it may be nice but it's not the same.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

Rosemarie wrote: "I'm glad you enjoyed it, Piyangie. I thought Anna and Max's feelings were realistically portrayed.
My family came to Canada when I was six and I know how important not wearing different clothes is..."

I found how Anna describes in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit suddenly no longer having to first translate from German into French and actually speaking it without thinking totally spot on. For me, after we moved to Canada from Germany, I also realised I now really knew English after I like Anna did no longer first have to translate from German to English when writing, speaking etc. (and also when I started dreaming not in German anymore but in English).

Piyangie wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Piyangie wrote: "This is a beautiful children's classic. Sensitive and moving. I'm glad I joined the read."

Are you planning on reading the sequels?"

Not for the moment, but I'v..."

I did not enjoy the third book that much but the second book was also really good.

Then I'll stick to the second one only, Manybooks. I'm curious to read about Anna's life in England.

I have read a lot of the Mog books with my children so was really looking forward to this and it didn’t disappoint. What an incredible journey Anna goes on, the challenges that they have to overcome are huge and there is never a sense of complaint, just that of adventure. Her parents must have been doing something right to instill such a positive outlook to her.
My favourite part was when they asked ‘but what is a Mog’ and the basket replied ‘Meeeee’. Such a dramatic point in the story, but I admit I giggled a lot at this.

I like the Mog books too.
I'm glad you enjoyed the book, Georgina.

I've just finished the second book in the trilogy, Bombs on Aunt Dainty and enjoyed. It's Anna's coming of age story as well as a good depiction of what life was like for refugees and ordinary people in general during the war.

After reading the summary and reviews of the third book, I decided to quit after book 2.
I found the scenes between Anna and her mother hard to bear in book 2.

Rosemarie wrote: "I've just finished the second book in the trilogy, Bombs on Aunt Dainty and enjoyed. It's Anna's coming of age story as well as a good depiction of what life was like for refugees and..."

Good decision, as this gets much worse in book three!

I had never heard of this book before seeing it posted in this group and after reading the description I thought it would be a timely read. I am very glad that I read it and I will definitely try to read the sequels.

Judith Kerr is the author of a number of picture books. I like her "Mog" books. They're funny.

Rosemarie wrote: "Judith Kerr is the author of a number of picture books. I like her "Mog" books. They're funny."


The Tiger Who Came to Tea is really funny.

I loved all the comments here and agree with a lot of what was said. I found Anna very easy to relate to as just a little girl trying to be just a little girl amongst change and insecurity. I think both parents were very impractical but Anna loved her parents and said it didn’t matter where she was as long as they were all together. I made the Dieppe to Newhaven ferry crossing twice in stormy seas and could absolutely sympathize with Anna.

In my usual way, I'm a year behind in reading this "buddy read". Ha! But I wanted to showcase for others how useful it is to query the group's backthreads.

I found the comments here useful, eg sequels: (add 2nd to TBR, skip 3rd), Anna's father's personality per the biography.

The reference by the parent's French friend that they were "so impractical" was thought provoking- recognizing this was a function of leaving wealth and servants behind. I wonder if this amusement was a function of how matters stood in Paris at that time and if that amusement and help would have dried up after France was occupied. Clearly, Anna's mother was making the (necessary) attempt to pick up the skills she had never needed.

Anna's mother really didn't get any help from Anna's father either.

No, she definitely did not, though that was less uncommon. And doesn’t that norm seem unusual here today, thank goodness!?!